Nutrition in acute pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis ranges from a mild and self-limiting disease (80%) to severe rapildly progressive illness. severe acute pancreatitis is usually accompanied by systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) which results in hypermetabolism with prominent protein catabolism. Providing nutrition to these patients is of paramount importance. It has been shown that patient with hypermetabolism and hypercatabolic state needs artificial nutrition as soon as possible. The concept of pancreatic rest has also changed over the years and evidence has accumulated indicating that enteral nutrition scores over total parentral nutrition; and needs to be initiated early in the course of illness.